Barack Obama is letting us know the kind of welfare state he has in mind for America. In addition to government spending, he is proposing job-killing mandates for employers of all but start-up companies. As the EU social welfare states like Germany and France have discovered, making it very expensive to hire people tends to make new jobs scarce. 

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is rolling out a cradle-to-grave tax-and-benefit program aimed at women and working-class families.

The sweeping subsidies and mandates reflect his past as a community organizer. [....]

a 50 percent match on the first $1,000 a year of retirement savings for families earning up to $75,000, an expansion of the current "saver's credit."

Requiring all companies - except those in their first two years of operation or with fewer than 10 workers - to enroll employees in retirement plans or direct-deposit individual retirement accounts. Workers could opt out.

• A $4,000 annual college-tuition tax credit.
• A major expansion of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which ensures that workers can take time off for health or family reasons.